886 OF GENERATION ACTION OF THE MALE. 



those contained in the seminal fluid collected from females that have just 

 copulated, are frequently found to live many days. As in the case of cili- 

 ated epithelium, the movements are rapidly arrested by weak acids, whilst 

 they are stimulated by alkalies. They cease when the spermatozoa are ex- 

 posed to a temperature of 120 F., 1 but frozen spermatozoa recommence 

 movements on being thawed. Their presence may be readily detected by 

 an observer familiar with their appearance, and furnished with a Microscope 

 of sufficient power, even when they have long ceased to move, and are brokpn 

 into fragments; and the Physician and the Medical Jurist will frequently 

 derive much assistance from an examination of this kind. Thus, cases are 

 of no uncommon occurrence, especially among those who have been too much 

 addicted to sexual indulgence, in which seminal emissions take place uncon- 

 sciously and frequently, and produce great general derangement of the 

 health ; and the true nature of the complaint is obscure, until the fact has 

 been detected by microscopic examination. Again, in charges of rape, in 

 which evidence of actual emission is required, a microscopic examination of 

 the stiffened spots left on the linen will seldom fail in obtaining proof if the 

 act have been completed : in such cases, however, we must not expect to meet 

 with more than fragments of Spermatozoa ; but these are so unlike anything 

 else that little doubt need be entertained regarding them. It has been pro- 

 posed to employ the same test in juridicial inquiries respecting doubtful cases 

 of death by suspension, seminal emissions being not unfrequent results of 

 this kind of violence; but there are many obvious objections which should 

 prevent much confidence being placed in it. 2 



732. The mode of evolution of the Spermatozoa, 3 which are undoubtedly 

 true products of the formative action of the organs in which they are found, 

 and cannot be ranked in the same category with Animalcules, probably 

 varies in different animals, so that in one the entire sperm-cell with all its 

 parts is converted into a Spermatozoon (Schweigger-Seidel) ; in another the 

 Spermatozoon proceeds exclusively from the nucleus (Kolliker), and in an- 

 other it originates from the nucleus which remains at the head, and the cell- 

 protoplasm which develops into the tail (v. Lavalette St. George).* Besides 

 the cells already described numerous molecules are found in the semen. 

 Mr. Gulliver describes them as resembling oil-particles, and varying in diam- 

 eter from ^Jfl-oth to goooj-h of an inch. They are always present, but are 

 particularly abundant in birds and reptiles, when the testes begin to enlarge 

 in spring, and become scanty as soon as the spermatozoa are completely de- 

 veloped. And the same is true for Man just before and after the attainment 

 of the age of puberty. 



733. That the Spermatozoa are the essential elements of the spermatic 

 fluid, may be reasonably inferred from several considerations. There are 

 some_cases in which the "liquor seminis" is altogether absent, so that they 

 constitute the sole element of the semen ; whilst, on the other hand, they are 



Bizzozero, Anmili Universal!, vol. clxxxvii. 



J See the Author's Article Asphyxia, in the Library of Practical Medicine,, and 

 the authorities there referred to. 



1 Fur researches on the development, etc., of the Spermatozoa, see the elaborate 

 Article Semen, in the Cyclop of An at. and Physio]., by Drs. Wanner and Leuckart, 

 Prof. Kolliker'a Manual of Microscopic Anatomy, 1800; Schweigger-Seidel in Max 

 Schultze's Archiv f. Mikr<kop. Anat., Bd. i, p. 309 ; Lavalette St. Geor-v, Strick- 



. . ., . , . . -, c- 



Htiman and Comp. Histology, vol. ii, 18712, p. 131 ; Merkel, Keidiert's Archiv, 

 871, p. f.44. Neumann (Centralblatt, 1872. p. 881) contends that Spermat>/.ua are 

 merely detached cilia developed from the epithelial cells lining the tubuli testis. See 

 v. Ehner, also Reichert's Archiv, 1872, p. 25t> ; Henle, Handbuch, Bd. ii, p. 356. 



Kolliker's views on the development of the spermatozoa are illustrated in Plate 

 I, Figs. 2 and 3. 



